Owen, who spends most of his life immersed in science fiction and fantasy get a funny “Glitch in the Matrix” feeling when he starts to do the math on Wedgeman. He’s on the verge of calling bullshit on it, too, in today’s comic . Come on kids, bring it home! You’ve been in high school for as long as you can remember. Think back, do you even remember Jr. High?

Like this:

18 responses to “Plod Holes”

He did an entire week about Wedgeman without actually showing him. The most unique “storyteller” in the world strikes yet again. As far as “became a senior this year” is concerned, I remember a strip where (ugh) Summer protected Owen and/or Cody from Wedgeman and that had to be three or four years ago, so there’s that.

If the premise posed by Owen is any indication, The Author seems to think that it’s acceptable in high school culture for seniors to haze and bully underclassmen. It may have been the way things were in the high school he attended, but it was not universal and never appropriate.

In retrospect, the Act I Sight gag of hall monitor Les’ desk equipped with a machine gun raises questions about The Author’s mindset.

Is Goth Shelly Winters smirking in the last panel? If not, she should be! I hope she’s kidding, and the Westview school system doesn’t actually have “advance placement for bullies.” If it actually does, it’s patently ridiculous. I fear that this storyline will actually stretch into next week, and Wedgeman will show up.

I certainly understand the premise – big/older guy picks on smaller/younger dorks/uncool students. This will always be true to an extent, and not just in school. But with TB it’s also based on an outdated stereotype that would more accurately fit the 70s era. In other words, it’s just another exercise in his usual form of nostalgia, based on how he remembers his teen years, and hardly something that is relevant, meaningful, or sensitive enough to appeal to a contemporary teen. If he genuinely wants to explore this topic on a level similar to teen pregnancy, land mines and cancer death, he’d incorporate cyber bullying and slut shaming among the school’s mean girls, maybe even raise the specter of teen suicide – stuff that actually is contemporary and happening among teens in the U.S. It’s not like he is unaware ot any of this – it’s often in the news, even a year ago I imagine. But he seems like whenever he walks up to a topic he gets cold feet, and reverts to his comfort zone. So no, Tom, it’s not called writing. It’s called artistic cowardice. (If, miraculously, next week involves cyber bullying I’ll gladly eat at least part of my words. But I’ll lay odds that won’t happen.)

My recollection of the Great Prestigious Bullying Arc was that Chullo thought that he and Glasses could now bully people was because they were seniors now. In other words, Wedgeman’s bullying came not from his temperament but from his position.

Now Tom Batiuk is saying that’s not true? Well, color me shocked that he would retcon stuff like this. (/sarc)

Sosfdavido’s intro suggests how, if this were a different strip — a much more interesting one — today would be the moment right before the characters realize they’re clones or pod people or simulacra of some kind: “Come to think of it . . . I don’t even remember this morning. In fact, I don’t even remember sitting down at this table!!”